Strange, strange and awful to be grateful to Rob for his selfishness. ‘Constance!’ Rob called, interrupting her turmoil. ‘Come and dine with us... sister!’ The filmy fabric billowed as she stepped into the hall, and headed for the stairs. As she descended, she saw them in the wide, arched doorway of the dining hall. Identical looks of hunger and appreciation greeted her. Rob, so comfortable in his temporary station of lord of the manor, was utterly at ease in an open-collared shirt and soft. I went to the fridge to get some milk.I told her, “Dad called today evening, he said he won’t be coming for the next two years. I don’t know what he’s planning leaving us two alone for this many years.”“He’s married and has a son with another woman,” my mom said in a sobbing voice. “What?” I don’t know how to react to this.”Mom, please don’t joke about these things,” I said half angrily. Hearing this my mom started crying even more loudly. Now I know she was not joking about this.Seeing her cry. He didn’t just think outside the box. He had misplaced the box in his youth, and had never bothered to look for it!Their solution relied on designing the most basic of superstructures with all the requirements for flight and fight, in or out of atmosphere. Bran and Ryan, with the help of their Companions, had worked out the general idea months before. The superstructure only needed to physically support the subsystems: environmental, propulsion, electronic warfare (EW), and weapons. Some of the. Listening to the comm channels we heard when the miners and freighter crewwere picked up by a Vorge Naval Battleship. Word was out, there was a newthreat, Captain Deanna of the Sissies Revenge and Captain Bambi of theHidden Treasure. The bounty jumped from two million to ten just as quickly.We'd come a long way from our two years of drifting in space. My girls hadused part of their time learning to operate in EV suits, how to use theweapons found in our Armory, and how to use our ships.